Chapter 12: War on All Sides

In late March, just as Steel Commandment was poised to act in Europe, fighting broke out in South Africa first.

The Rainbow Commandery had never been a peaceful place. Small armed clashes had continued unabated for thirty years. Twelve years ago, the five most powerful local warlords had launched the “Six-Army War.”

That was what they called it, anyway. Of these supposed six armies, five were disunited, each pursuing its own schemes. The sixth, the imperial army, was so far ahead of the warlords in equipment, technology, fighting strength, discipline, and everything else that the outcome was entirely predictable.

But to protect the local mineral resources, along with the profits certain financial magnates and nobles stood to reap at every stage, the Empire refrained from using weapons that would cause extensive damage to those resources. As a result, the war dragged on for four years. You could say the region's exceptional natural advantages gave those five armies a helping hand. As for the rebels, even if they'd dared to use weapons of mass destruction, they didn't actually have any.

Paper Hero and Malone had both served throughout that war. Perhaps, in a sense, it hardly counted as a war at all—just a small local military conflict. It dragged on for four years, but the combined casualties of all six armies weren't particularly high, and the Empire had barely lost anyone. Had the war ended two years earlier, Paper Hero might have met Blood Owl during Venice's “Bloody Midnight.” Of course, if that had happened, he might have been finished long ago.

Eight years ago, the Six-Army War ended with the rebel organizations utterly routed, at least for the time being. They finally admitted that fighting separately made it difficult to stand against the Empire, and so they formed the “Flame Martial Union.” They spent the next eight years reclaiming lost ground and recovering their strength. Now, in the first year of the new century, their military operations had begun again.

War is an extension of politics, an excellent showcase for human nature. When you can't get what you need by following the rules the ruling class has laid down within the bounds of conventional morality, it's time to turn to more primitive, barbaric methods. It was so even before the concept of private property existed. Anything we can't settle by talking, we can settle by fighting. If you can't get what you want, resort to force. That's all there is to it.

So people can always find reasons to fight, but before getting down to it, they need an unassailable political position. As the saying goes, an army needs a just cause. You have to prepare your “proclamation” before you act. That means finding a few professional ghostwriters to knock out several dozen pages of slanted prose resembling a short story, then releasing it to the public. Make people feel as though you've been forced into starting a war. That's what they call taking up arms to overthrow tyranny.

Of course, it also depends on how clever your made-up reasons are. For instance, there was once a fellow in history who proclaimed himself God's second son when he launched a rebellion. Bear in mind, this guy was Asian.

Right... In all the human history that followed, it's hard to find anyone who could measure up to him, apart from a few cult leaders.

At any rate, the outbreak of fighting here meant that one of the Empire's most sensitive nerves had been touched again, and the eyes of the whole world turned toward it. No one yet knew that the Flame Martial Union was only the beginning.

April 1, a date with some rather peculiar associations. On that day, Steel Commandment also took up arms on the European continent. The first territory they seized was the Vatican. Yes... what a surprising choice. Ha.

Steel Commandment had long been known as the strongest rebel organization overall. With the added impetus of the Blood Owl incident just over two months earlier, everything was ready; all they needed was a favorable wind. And what a coincidence. The trouble in that South African backwater was precisely the “upheaval in the world” the grand master had been waiting for. How could he wait any longer? An empire to conquer, a dominion to build, and now was the time! How many chances like this could a man afford to miss in one lifetime?

These two great organizations answered each other's call from north and south, each coveting the world, and the Empire could hardly wipe them out overnight. And so the whole planet boiled over. Rebel organizations sprang up like mushrooms after rain all over the world. Those with real strength and a long history took the opportunity to absorb newly formed smaller groups on a vast scale, swelling their ranks and extending their influence in pursuit of greater ambitions.

The imperial family was utterly unprepared for this sudden turn of events. As they saw it, those lowborn wretches had neither the courage nor any reason to rebel against the Empire. Why had the slightest disturbance in the world brought out so many desperate outlaws?

All one can say is that those who understand this sort of thing understand it. As for them, perhaps they never would...

Fortunately, the powerful in Tiandu were not all fat, idle fools. Over more than a hundred years, a regime that ruled the entire planet had still managed to recruit some outstanding talent into its upper ranks. Clever strategists planned its moves, loyal ministers managed its affairs, and valiant generals commanded its troops.

Local military operations, crackdowns, propaganda campaigns, and the rest proceeded at a feverish pace. All the necessary measures were put into effect. The world remained in the Empire's hands. Barring any major unforeseen developments, within five years it would return to that “golden age of peace and prosperity.”

...

April 15. Dragon Commandery, Modu.

This had originally been a small fishing village beside the East China Sea. For a few years, it had also been called the Paris of the East. Then, at some indeterminate point, the city acquired the name Modu, meaning Demon Metropolis, which sounded like the designated residence of the chief villains in a shonen manga.

In a district that wasn't particularly prosperous, on a little street that wasn't particularly busy, stood a bookshop with “books” on its sign. Books were piled high behind the street-facing display window. If not for the “open” sign hanging behind a small pane of glass in the door, it would have been hard to tell whether the place was in business.

Inside the bookshop, two upholstered armchairs sat on opposite sides of a large desk. The computer on the desk looked like an obsolete model from the early twenty-first century, and the telephone looked like an antique from the late twentieth. Between them sat an even older invention, a Chinese chess set.

Tian Yi and Gu Wen, one with a cup of coffee before him and the other with a glass of tomato juice, stared fixedly at the board... playing dark chess.

“Judging by the books I looked through this morning, Blood Owl has followed us to Modu,” Tian Yi said, turning over a piece on the board.

Gu Wen said, “I still have reservations about your decision to pass him information and lure him here.”

“We can only keep Tea Immortal from catching up with him by continually steering him somewhere else. If those two meet, things will go very badly,” Tian Yi said.

Reaching out to capture one of his opponent's chariots, Gu Wen said, “Even though Darkwater has joined up with us, I still feel that dealing with Blood Owl is extremely dangerous.”

“It's a risk worth taking. Even if negotiations fail, this encounter will let me find out exactly what abilities Blood Owl has,” Tian Yi said. “Judging by his past performance, he's never fought anyone with anything other than hand-to-hand combat. But he's at least Fierce rank. Someone like that may be one of the very few monsters who can wield an Order Disruption ability at will.”

“Suppose Darkwater can't hold Blood Owl off. What if he starts killing without a word the moment he sees us? What then?” Gu Wen asked.

“Hmm...” Tian Yi turned over his own general, only to find it boxed into a corner by Gu Wen's pawn. “Then I'll kick you in front of him and make a run for it while he's cutting your face off to make socks.”